Eminent retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Moronkeji Omotayo Onalaja Sunday passed on at 84 years after a brief illness.

Justice Moronkeji Omotayo Onalaja The jurist, who died at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, two months to his 84th birthday was the founding chairman of the Independent Ombudsman of the Nigerian press.

Born July 24, 1933, Onalaja attended the CMS Grammar School, Lagos and later attended the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he obtained LL.B degree in 1956 and the LL.M in 1958.

He was called to the English Bar at Inner Temple on June 16, 1959. A year later, he became a legal practitioner of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and joined the chambers of E. B. Craig & Co. After three years, he opened his own chambers. He was in practice for twenty years during which he handled many landmark cases.

He successfully defended Professor Soyanwo, who was charged with obstructing the convoy of the then premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola. He was also part of the legal team that secured Professor Wole Soyinka’s acquittal in the robbery of a radio tape at the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation station in Ibadan.

In 1980, he was appointed a judge of the Lagos High Court and elevated to the Appellate Bench in 1993, where he bowed out with honour in 2003. Law reports are replete with his rulings, 99 percent of which were affirmed by the Supreme Court. A recipient of the national honour of Officer of the Federal Republic, Justice Onalaja in 2004, he also served as chairman of the Council of Legal Education for eight years.

While in private practice, he was the founding editor of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports, consulting editor, University of Ibadan Law Journal, consulting editor, Property Law Journal of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.

He is also the sponsor of the Judicial Reporting category at the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME)

Justice Onalaja was a devoted Anglican and survived by six children, including Mrs. Olawunmi Idowu of the Nigeria Insurance Association and Mr. Jide Onalaja, lately of Virgin Atlantic. His wife, Margaret, predeceased him in 2002.